Writers: Robin Furth and Peter David
Artists: Jae Lee and Richard Isanove
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 7th
Over a year ago, it was announced that Stephen King would be producing a comic book with Marvel based on his epicDark Tower series. To fans of the series, the news was met with skepticism. After all, the cycle of the Dark Tower saga was complete. How could there be any Dark Tower stories when King had already finished his series so perfectly? How could the graphic medium do justice to a work that was so beautifully rendered in prose? When it was announced that veteran comic writer Peter David would script the series, many fans’ hopes were deflated. How could anybody but Stephen King speak the voice of Mid-World? Still, Marvel continues to promote the book heavily, and all of the preview art that has been released looks gorgeous. So, after reading the first issue amidst expectation and speculation, how does it stand against the hype?
It’s pretty darned good. While future issues will hold new content and new stories, the first issue of the series is a straightforward adaptation of elements from King’s books, and works like a good movie adaptation. The technical aspects work together well, and the visuals are gorgeous. But, like most movie adaptations, the books are still better.
The first issue starts with a montage of an adult gunslinger, Roland, chasing the elusive man in black. These first few pages are taken directly from The Gunslinger. Then the story flashes back to the gunslinger’s childhood, to his training as a boy. Again, the story is taken directly from King’s books, though the work is often fleshed out. There isn’t much new material here. Instead, this comic is a rich and glorious representation of King’s world.
To make the flashback effective, and to propel the story in a logical manner, Peter David has created an omniscient narrator to tell the story. Here lies the greatest problem. While the narrator works fine in a structural sense, David’s narrator speaks with the dialect King created for his world. Unfortunately, Peter David is not Stephen King. The rhythm of the dialect feels off. Fans of the prose series may notice some discrepancy. Fortunately, the dialogue between the characters feels real, and remains true to the spirit of the novels. Some of the dialogue is taken directly from the books, and the rest flows naturally. In this respect, David did his job as well as could be expected.
But the dialogue and the plot are, to fans of Stephen King, nothing new. What’s new, what makes this comic worth reading, is the art. Jae Lee and Richard Isanove’s art is nothing short of gorgeous. Previously, Lee worked in a dark, minimalist ink style. Here, his pencils are more realistic, more detailed. He still employs moody shadows and lighting to great effect, but his art in this comic is more fully realized.
Even Lee’s pencils, though, would not be as gorgeous as they are if not for the glorious colors of Richard Isanove. Isanove uses a similar digital painting style to that which he used on books like Origin and 1602. His colors are vibrant and beautiful, and they bring Lee’s pencils to life in the most vibrant of ways. The resulting comic looks more like a montage of detailed watercolor paintings than digitally painted pencils. Truly, Isanove is the best colorist working in the comic book business today, and this is his best work to date.
With amazing art and a good story, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born is definitely worth picking up. This is hardly the most innovative or imaginative story told in comics today, and it’s not quite as good as a book. As with many movie adaptations, the prose remains a better telling than the visual adaptation, despite a talented and effective team of artists and writers. The voice is a tad off, and no matter how good they look, the visuals will always be a little different from what fans imagined. Still, for what it’s worth, this is one hell of a book adaptation. Fans of King’s books will find a beautiful rendering of some of his best stories. In that sense, this comic has succeeded in its purpose, and exceeded what was expected of it.
Casey Cosker lives, reads, writes, and occasionally studies at Pratt Institute in New York City. He spends his free time and money buying comic books and novels he can’t afford. He has been a self-proclaimed geek for several months now, and has no intention of changing his ways. He also has a hat.